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Virginia Democrats Face Uphill Battle for Gun Control

Democrats are hoping to make gun-control a central plank in this year’s elections, but Virginia Republicans say it’s a bad idea.

Republicans control both chambers of Congress and party leaders don’t want to have a gun control debate ahead of November’s elections. With Democrats being the minority party in the House, they don’t have many tools to control the debate, which is why they stormed the House floor last week – demanding that the GOP hold a vote on guns in the aftermath of the Orlando shooting at the LGBT club. Northern Virginia Democrat Don Beyer says he’s glad his party forced the issue on GOP leaders.

“They would like to have a yes vote, but they’re in a tough place. So what they do is they avoid having any vote, it’s easier if it just never comes to the floor. And you know, we may lose this vote possibly.”

Virginia Republicans say the effort by Democrats was misguided. Virginia Republican Dave Brat says he wished Democrats were asking his party to debate the war on terrorism.

"Hey, where you guys at?" If they gave me heat on that and had a reasonable debate on some of the big issues, right? On terrorism and ISIS and etc. But there're nowhere to be found so, I think most of this is just, they're just, playing a little politics."

Brat says he’s open to Democrats’ calls to ban people on the terror watch list from buying weapons, but that it would need to be tweaked from its current form.

"I mean, the only thing I've heard that seems in the ball park is kind of the high risk terrorist fly list, all that kind of thing, and so we can look at that but I think our side looked at that a couple months ago and several members of congress I think were on that list.”

Virginia Republican Morgan Griffith says the Democratic proposals are unfair because they could keep guns from law abiding citizens who would struggle to get their name removed from the government’s no fly list.  

"I have not seen it, well what is it going to say, no fly list, they have to then note an appeal so in order to get your constitutional right you have to spend $10,000. Yeah, so if you're poor you don't get your rights. If you're rich you can and the government will pay you back if you win but poor people don't have constitutional rights."

Democrats are dumbfounded at the GOP opposition in the wake of recent attacks by domestic terrorists on US soil. Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine says something has to be done.

“I don’t know. I do think that the combination of San Bernardino and this one, because it raises the terrorism issue, I think really shines a spotlight on an incredible vulnerability we have.”

Kaine is rumored to be a potential Vice Presidential nominee. He says the NRA has held Congress in a stranglehold.

“We suffered badly in Virginia at the Virginia Tech shooting and we thought something would happen and there’s just been one tragedy after the next and this body has been impotent, weak, silent and a bystander to this carnage of gun violence that’s going on in the United States.”

Kaine played a key role in crafting a new bipartisan gun bill with Republican Maine Senator Susan Collins that would ban people on the No-Fly List from getting guns. The bill passed a procedural hurdle last week even though the NRA opposed it, which Kaine says is a huge step forward.

“The NRA was whipping to table Collins? When is the last time the NRA lost a battle up here? Not since I’ve been here.”

When Democrats get back from their break they’re vowing to continue to pressure Republicans on gun-control, but Republican leaders seem to want to avoid the debate to provide cover for their members locked in tight reelection battles.

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